Lauda Sion Salvatorem

The Lauda Sion Salvatorem is the sequence of Corpus Christi, composed by St Thomas Aquinas in 1264 at the request of Urban IV. It is the synthesis of Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist in poetic form. Sung at the Mass of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ), before the Gospel. The text is long — 24 stanzas — but may be sung in the short form (from the stanza Ecce panis Angelorum).

Praise, O Sion, your Saviour;
praise your leader and your shepherd
in hymns and canticles.

Dare as much as you are able,
for he is greater than all praise,
nor are you able to praise him enough.

A special theme of praise,
the living and life-giving Bread,
is set forth today.

The same who at the supper of the sacred meal,
to the band of twelve brothers,
was undoubtedly given.

Let praise be full, let it be sonorous;
let the jubilation of the mind
be joyful and seemly.

For the solemn day is celebrated
in which the first institution
of this table is remembered.

At this table of the new King,
the new Paschal feast of the new law
brings to a close the ancient rite.

The new puts the old to flight,
the truth banishes the shadow,
the light dispels the night.

What Christ did at the Supper,
he commanded to be done
in remembrance of him.

Taught by his holy rules,
we consecrate bread and wine
as the victim of salvation.

This is the dogma given to Christians:
that the bread becomes flesh,
and the wine becomes blood.

What you do not understand, what you do not see,
living faith confirms,
beyond the order of things.

Under diverse appearances,
signs only and not realities,
sublime realities lie hidden.

The flesh is food, the blood is drink;
yet Christ remains whole
under each species.

By the one who receives, he is not cut,
not broken, not divided:
he is received whole.

One receives him, a thousand receive him;
as much one as those, as much as they receive;
nor is he consumed in being received.

The good receive him, the wicked receive him,
but with unequal lot:
of life or of ruin.

Death to the wicked, life to the good;
see how diverse may be the lot
of the same reception.

When finally the Sacrament is broken,
do not doubt, but remember
that as much is under the fragment
as under the whole.

No division of the thing is there,
only of the sign is there breaking,
by which neither the state nor the size
of the signified is diminished.

(The short form sung at Mass begins here:)

Behold the bread of Angels,
made the food of pilgrims:
true bread of children,
not to be cast to dogs.

In figures it was prefigured:
when Isaac was offered,
the Paschal Lamb was sacrificed,
manna was given to the fathers.

Good Shepherd, true Bread,
O Jesus, have mercy on us:
feed us, defend us,
make us see good things
in the land of the living.

You who know and can do all things,
who feed us here as mortals:
make us your table-companions there,
co-heirs and partners
in the city of the saints. Amen. Alleluia.